The closure of Units 1 and 2 was long anticipated as demand for U.S. coal collapsed in recent years, and came despite vows by elected officials in Montana to find ways to keep it open.
The Billings Gazette reports the Northern Cheyenne Tribe will receive up to $270,000 for a street sweeper and the city of Colstrip will receive up to $103,000 for a building to store road de-icer.
Those who wish to see the Colstrip plants close won’t allow the facts to get in the way of negative headline. They tout a huge cleanup figure to promote their goal – full closure and complete reclamation of the Colstrip plant site. By making the cleanup appear to be so costly they hope that the plant owners will have no choice but to shut it down. Distortions of the truth meant to cause fear and scare the public with inflated price tags in order to speed up the plant’s demise are simply irresponsible.
New Colstrip owners and Sierra Club and the Montana Environmental Information Center announced earlier this week the shutdown of Colstrip units one and two on or before 2022. Reactions varied, but Montana Gov. Steve Bullock joined Sen. Steve Daines and others who were devastated by the news.
The operator of the four coal-fired power plants at Colstrip told plant owners Monday it plans to exit as operator within two years. State officials confirmed Monday they’d been told Talen Energy of Allentown, Pa., informed the plants’ utility owners that it no longer wants to operate the power plants in southeastern Montana...